The divine wind presents the same conflicts that occur throughout the history of mankind, they were all caused by racial prejudice. The Divine wind is set during World War II where tension arose between Australian and Japanese communities. Infamous events that were motivated by racial discrimination include The Holocaust, the African-American civil rights movement and the treatment of the Aborigines are ultimately the result of racism.
These events resulted in death of millions of people. Even today, racial conflict occurs, an example being between the Islamic and non-Islamic people, as seen in the recent anti-Islamic video that went viral. his shows racial conflict is still predominant in our society.The Divine wind written Gary Disher depicts the prevalence of prejudice, which results in adversity between white and minorities in Australia during the war.
This is evident with the treatment of the Japanese communities, as many of them were interrogated and arrested as they were suspected of being spies for japan. Friendship started to fall apart as they felt uncomfortable with each other due to the racial tension, which is exactly what happened with Mitsy, Hart and Alice. The holocaust is the most well-known racially driven conflict.Where Jewish, Gypisies, the disabled, homosexuals and other groups were explicitly hunted down and annihilated.
The Nazi’s hatred towards non-Arians resulted in the death of 6 million Jewish people, concentration camps were created to hold prisoners and killed millions through gassings, extreme work and starvation. The final solution was Nazi Germany’s plan to execute systematic genocides of the Jewish community. Halfway through the war Japan joined against the Ally forces creating a true world war, this action caused suspicions to arise between the Australian and Japanese communities.Many Australians suspected Japanese people of being spies and trying to steal intel from Australia and sending it back to Japan, due to their ignorance they also believed that other Asians were Japanese.
This event that was caused by racial segregation between the Australian and Asians. This is shown when Mitsy and other Japanese people face prejudice and hated from the white Australians in the divine wind. Throughout history, the African-American ethnic group has faced immense amounts of racism and discrimination, something that is present even now.The African- American Civil rights movement of the 1950s-60s aimed to restore their basic human rights, which meant being able to vote, and receive education.
They were treated savagely by the white community. In an attempt to prevent the civil rights movement, mobs of white people would lynch innocent African-American people simply because of the colour of their skin. To lynch someone means to carry out an hanging execution without legal permission through mob-power. In a similar vein, indigenous Australians were also used as servants and discriminated against due to the colour of their skin.
Servants, such as Bernadette, were separated from their families when they were young and, on the whole, were treated with prejudice and discrimination by their employers. This is shown in the Divine Wind, by Mr Kilian who wants to try a racial experiment in Broome which involves “breeding a superior Australian type”. He believed that such a program would make Australia “more attractive” and therefore “more whites will come”. As place of “purity”, Australia would be a place where the “blacks” would work, while the white they can relax and enjoy being “superior”, a utopian society.
This prejudice against coloured people makes Australia an “uncultivated dump” causing conflict between friends, which is shown between Alice and Mitsy. Racism even occurs now. The recent anti-Islamic video that was posted on YouTube. The Video insults the religion’s prophet, Mohammed and recently sparked controversy around the world.
This caused the Al-Qaeda leader to call for an increase in attacks against the United States; this is a war that is caused by religious differences. The video was filled with racial comments and sparked violent protests, leading to the death of the U. S Ambassador in Libya. On 15th September a protest against the film was held in Sydney.
While it started peacefully, it quickly escalated and turned violent, resulting in injuries to the police and protesters. These conflicts that have occurred throughout history were all directly caused by racial prejudice, and resulted in large loss of life. The Divine wind shows that many of these racially driven conflicts result in death. The effects of racial prejudice set everyone back and prevents bonds between people.
